This year’s decline of Arctic sea ice may be as bad as the record low of 2012
by Mares - 19th May 2016
At the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), sea ice physicists have predicted that the…
Coral bleaching makes fish easy prey
by Mares - 17th May 2016
The current spate of coral bleaching in Australian waters is preventing baby common damselfish from learning how to identify which…
Sewage disposal into Baltic Sea banned from 2019 onwards
by Mares - 4th May 2016
The Baltic Sea can breathe easy in the future. From 2019 onwards, cruise ships and passenger ferries are no longer…
Proportion of unicellular plankton much higher than previously thought
by Mares - 29th April 2016
Unicellular planktonic organisms play a more important role in the marine ecosystem than previously thought. This was the conclusion drawn…
International shipping routes and invasive species: What’s next?
by Mares - 26th April 2016
Scientists from Oldenburg and Frankfurt have modelled how the global shipping routes leads to the spread of invasive plant and…
Reef sharks prefer bite-sized meals
by Mares - 22nd April 2016
Many of us have the impression that sharks have a large appetite. However, a new study proves otherwise, indicating that…
Coral reefs can condition themselves against coral bleaching
by Mares - 19th April 2016
The Great Barrier Reef is currently experiencing coral bleaching on an unprecedented scale, and scientists have voiced much concern about…
Baby sharks defy ocean acidification
by Mares - 15th April 2016
Some baby sharks are able to cope with the level of ocean acidification predicted for the end of this century,…
Scientists find thousands of red crabs “swarming like insects”
by Mares - 14th April 2016
Off the Pacific coast of Panama, researchers studying biodiversity at the Hannibal Bank Seamount got more than they bargained for.…
Straits of Gibraltar no deterrent to breeding eels
by Mares - 12th April 2016
Researchers, including one from the Technical University of Denmark, have proven for the first time that eels from the Mediterranean…
Wadden Sea National Park under threat from Russian oil drilling company
by Mares - 4th April 2016
Greenpeace activists recently staged a demonstration against Russian oil company DEA Deutsche Erdoel AG (DEA), which has plans to start…
Severe coral bleaching hits Great Barrier Reef
by Mares - 30th March 2016
Some recent surveys have shown how the rising temperature of the seawater has led to severe coral bleaching at Australia's…
Tsunami risk at Mount Etna? Scientists install geodetic network at the foot of Europe’s largest volcano
by Mares - 29th March 2016
Measurements taken by satellites indicate that the eastern flank of Mount Etna is slowly sliding into the Ionian Sea. However,…
Environment groups call for more effective marine protection
by Mares - 18th March 2016
German environmental organisations have called for a more effective level of marine protection in the North and Baltic Sea by…
Ocean acidification slows down coral reef growth
by Mares - 17th March 2016
By manipulating the seawater chemistry of a reef to study how excess carbon dioxide caused by human activity affects coral…
GRD: Seen any harbour porpoises lately?
by Mares - 11th March 2016
As in previous years, the GRD (Society for Dolphin Conservation) is appealing to the public to report any sightings of…
Diver sucked into the intake pipe of a nuclear plant
by Mares - 9th March 2016
A family outing took a bizarre turn for the worse when scuba diver Christopher Le Cun found himself sucked into…
Book launch at Maritime Museum shines light on first German deep-sea expedition
by Mares - 7th March 2016
Zoologist Carl Chun from Leipzig was fascinated by the possibilities within the deep sea. In a speech to the German…
Sharks and rays under threat from overfishing and poor fisheries management
by Mares - 3rd March 2016
A high demand for shark fins from Asian countries has been considered to be a major cause of the overfishing…
Defining research priorities for the Arctic
by Mares - 29th February 2016
The major international Arctic research organisations, with the involvement of the indigenous peoples of the Arctic, have come up with…
High concentrations of gold found in Iceland’s geothermal systems
by Mares - 25th February 2016
On Iceland's Reykjanes peninsula, marine scientists found themselves prospecting for gold when they discovered very high concentrations of gold in…
Tourism in Sinai badly affected by recession – More than 50 dive centres have ceased operations
by Mares - 23rd February 2016
The dive industry in Sinai has been hard hit by the current recession in the tourism sector, and more than…
Researchers measure decomposition in polyethylene and biodegradable bags
by Mares - 15th February 2016
Plastic waste is now found in practically every part of the world, from the Antarctic coasts to the ocean depths.…
How stable is the West Antarctic Ice Sheet?
by Mares - 12th February 2016
Exceeding critical temperature values can lead to collapse of the ice sheet and strong rise in sea level A future…
Researchers measure platelet ice beneath Antarctic sea ice
by Mares - 8th February 2016
For the first time, sea ice physicists at the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) have developed a new method of efficiently…
Genome of eelgrass mapped for the first time
by Mares - 4th February 2016
The genome of eelgrass (Zostera marina) has been mapped out by scientists after eight years of extensive research. It is…
World’s Ten Best Ethical Destinations named
by Mares - 26th January 2016
Ten countries have been named as The World's Ten Best Ethical Destinations for 2016 by Ethical Traveler, a nonprofit project…
Banding Together for Water Conservation
by Mares - 22nd January 2016
Trash in the ocean affects everyone. This is the message that some organisations intend to publicise at the upcoming BOOT…
Melosira Arctica named algae species of 2016
by Mares - 19th January 2016
Researchers have named the Melosira arctica, one of the major algae species in the Arctic Ocean, as Algae of the…
Love in the moonlight: The bumphead parrotfish mass aggregation at Palau’s Rock Islands
by Mares - 15th January 2016
The green humphead parrotfish (Bolbometopon muricatum) is one of the diver's favourite fishes. A school of more than 50 of…
Ocean Symposium at BOOT 2016
by Mares - 13th January 2016
Exactly 25 years ago, the research and media vessel Aldebaran emerged as a new and independent initiative to give the…
Eurasian water shrew is Switzerland’s Animal of 2016
by Mares - 8th January 2016
A water shrew that hunts underwater has been named Animal of 2016 by Swiss environmental organisation Pro Natura. The Eurasian…
Invasive seaweed develops stronger defences
by Mares - 4th January 2016
A higher level of defence has been found within an invasive strain of seaweed from Asia that has translocated to…
WWF calls for stricter import controls to combat illegal fishing
by Mares - 16th December 2015
The amount of fishing that actually takes place is actually being under-reported; so much so that about a fifth of…
Arctic sea ice plays essential role in methane cycle
by Mares - 8th December 2015
Study uncovers link between seasonal melting of sea ice and release of methane gas The ice-covered Arctic Ocean plays a…
Antibiotic-laden farmed salmon taken off shelves
by Mares - 30th November 2015
Consuming salmon –choosing between antibiotics and genetic engineering When it comes to farmed salmon, the news coming out of the…
Can a deep-sea ecosystem recover from human intervention?
by Mares - 26th November 2015
What would the ecological consequences be if the quantity of polymetallic (e.g. manganese) nodules in the deep sea was reduced? Would…
boot Düsseldorf launches video award
by Mares - 24th November 2015
Action-packed and exciting, or just romantic and beautiful: this is what they need to be – the video clips that…
Mesmerising creatures of the sea, yet so vicious – Misadventures with comb jellies
by Mares - 18th November 2015
Looking through the mask, it appears as if an alien lifeform is trying to communicate with the divers, flashing its…
Return of the blue whale?
by Mares - 16th November 2015
For several years, blue whales are more frequently being sighted in European waters, be it off the coast of England,…
Diving during pregnancy – an ongoing issue. The medical point of view
by Mares - 12th November 2015
A question that is frequently asked amongst divers and during medical examinations is: Can I dive during pregnancy? The answer…
Divers explore bacteria and other microorganisms
by Mares - 11th November 2015
A CMAS-certified team of scientific divers began its work on Braunschweiger Leibniz Institute DSMZ German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell…
Rare whale filmed for the very first time off the coast of Madagascar
by Mares - 6th November 2015
Researchers have filmed the rare Omura’s whale off the coast of Madagascar for the first time ever. Very little is…
Five countries responsible for 60 percent of plastic waste in oceans
by Mares - 2nd November 2015
About eight million tons of plastic trash enter the world’s oceans every year. According to a new study entitled Stemming…
Shark Rescue movie seeks funds to stay afloat
by Mares - 21st October 2015
“If sharks die, life on earth will also perish.” An Austrian team led by freediver Christian Redl and musician/diver Wolfgang…
Billions of juvenile polar cod under Arctic sea ice
by Mares - 14th October 2015
With a newly developed netting gear, marine scientists at the Alfred Wegener Institute managed to catch a large number of…
Coral reefs in dire threat
by Mares - 12th October 2015
The third global spate of coral bleaching currently taking place may affect almost 38 percent of all the coral reefs…
Thirty percent of UNESCO natural World Heritage Sites at risk
by Mares - 6th October 2015
Almost one-third of all 229 UNESCO Natural World Heritage Sites worldwide are being threatened by mining activity and the extraction…
